Curtis (Michael Shannon) lives in a small town in Ohio with his loving wife, Samantha (Jessica Chastain), and their hearing-impaired six-year-old daughter, Hannah. A solid, taciturn working class man, Curtis does his best to support his family, and all seems to be going well until he starts having intensely disturbing dreams about an impending storm.

Take Shelter is a darkly compelling domestic drama-cum-psychological thriller set in the rural American heartland. Propelled by the mesmerizing performance of Shannon as a young husband and father plagued by apocalyptic visions, writer-director Nichols crafts a haunting film firmly rooted in slice-of-life reality. (TIFF)

One of the preeminent moving-image artists working today, Jem Cohen has long blurred the line between the gallery and the cinema, so it’s only fitting that his uniquely pleasurable new documentary/fiction hybrid should do the same. Set largely within the Kunsthistorisches Art Museum in Vienna, Museum Hours focuses on Johann, a museum guard, and Anne, a visitor to the country who’s in town tending to a sick friend. Finding refuge in the museum during her many hours alone in a strange city, Anne gradually befriends Johann. As they admire the paintings by the Old Masters that adorn the museum walls, the unlikely friends reflect on how artworks can infuse and shape their daily experiences – and perhaps even change their lives. (TIFF)

Screenings at Metro Cinema
Saturday October 5 at 4:30 & 9 pm
Sunday October 13 at 1:15 pm
Tuesday October 15 at 9:30 pm
Monday October 21 at 9:30 pm
Wednesday October 23 at 7:00 pm

The Fast Runner is based on an ancient Inuit legend that takes place in the eastern arctic wilderness near Igloolik at the dawn of the first millennium. After the camp leader is murdered, the new leader Sauri drives his old rival Tulimaq down through mistreatment and ridicule. Years pass and power begins to change when the resentful Tulimaq has two sons – Amaqjuaq, The Strong One, and Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner. As the camp’s best hunters they provoke jealousy and rage in their rival, Oki, the leader’s ill-tempered son. When The Fast Runner wins away Oki’s promised bride-to-be, the beautiful Atuat, Oki conspires to murder the brothers.

Herb & Dorothy profiles the Vogels, a Manhattan couple who met in 1960 and began collecting art with their meagre incomes from the post office and the Brooklyn Public Library. Starting at a Robert Mangold opening, the documentary shows the now elderly Vogels in action among artists and curators as they attend events as they have for the past 40 years. The film moves between the Vogels in their art-crammed apartment and interviews with artists such as the Christos, Richard Tuttle, Lynda Benglis, Pat Steir, and James Siena, who have appreciated the Vogels’ loyal patronage. It is a story portraying a sheer love of art that transcends the commodification of creative work. Herb & Dorothy is not only a film for art world aficionados; it will surely please anyone in the community who can use a reminder about artistic exchange in an ideal state. (Trinie Dalton)

Presented in partnership between the Art Gallery of Alberta and Metro Cinema Society.